Art as a public works program: Remember when

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

When The Times asked 30 prominent people what they would do if they ran the National Endowment for the Arts, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said he would try to emulate the New Deal program that gave work to American artists in the 1930s.

The basketball great wrote: ‘Thousands of artists, sculptors, landscapers, filmmakers, musicians and writers were involved in using their crafts to help beautify America.... Many of their contributions are still with us and have become a special part of America’s cultural landscape.’

As it happens, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has gone to its vaults and assembled an exhibition of the very kind of project Abdul-Jabbar was writing about, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Program.

Our sister blog Top of the Ticket writes a lot more about the exhibition, called ‘1934: A New Deal for Artists.’

The Ticket notes: When President Roosevelt unveiled his New Deal programs during the Great Depression, he sought relief for every American, including artists. After all, said Harry Hopkins, the chain-smoking New Yorker FDR put in charge of the program, ‘Hell, they’ve got to eat just like other people!’

-- Sherry Stern